Internal polls show Harris ahead of Biden in net favorability

Vice President Harris led President Biden in favorability among key demographic groups, according to an internal poll conducted by the Biden-Harris campaign earlier this month.

Harris, who is now on track to become the Democratic presidential nominee after Biden dropped out of the race on Sunday, was ahead of Biden largely because of her lower unfavorability numbers.

“What we see in our data is that Harris has a much better net favorability among key segments of Latino voters, segments that will be critical to the Democratic victory. This is driven by his overall popularity, but also by his much lower unfavorable ratings,” said Matt Barreto, president of BSP Research, a group that conducts internal polling for the Democratic presidential campaign.

“While Biden has unfortunately seen his unfavorable ratings rise among Latinos, the same has not been true for Harris; it remains very favorable to Latinos, in particular the younger, indecisive and third-party inclined, who will be the critical element in November.”

The seven pivotal state polls conducted between June 28 and July 10 among 2,001 respondents tested the favorability of Biden, Harris and former President Trump.

According to a polling memo reviewed by The Hill, Trump’s net favorability among Latinos was negative in every battleground field surveyed, and Harris led both him and Biden in key segments.

“First, among swing, independent and third-party voters, Harris is more popular than Trump or Biden. Second, among younger Latinos, Harris has the largest favorability advantage, outpacing the President by 16-22 points. In third place among women, Harris has strong favorability,” the memo says.

It also turned out that the vice president led Biden among Puerto Ricans, in Pennsylvania, among Spanish speakers and with the growing number of voters in the presidential year.

The memo, written before Biden dropped out of the race, concluded that “the vice president can be a significant asset to the Biden-Harris ticket and establish strong connections with Latino voters on behalf of President Biden in the re-election campaign.”

Harris’ biggest lead over Biden, according to the poll, was among “double haters,” or voters who disapprove of both him and Trump. In this group, Harris’s net favorability was 46 points higher than the president’s.

Among Latinos ages 18 to 24, Harris led Biden by 22 points, and she led by 20 points among Latino Republicans.

Specifically among Latinas in this age group, Harris’s lead grew to 24 points.

Latino survey respondents who said they were planning to vote third-party also came out strongly in favor of Harris, who led Biden by 21 points in net favorability among those voters.

According to Barreto, much of the vice president’s advantage is due to the negative effect that Biden’s age has had on his favorability.

“Given that Latino voters’ main concern was Biden’s age, Harris almost immediately makes up for that deficit and has the ability to take Latino voter support numbers to new heights. We already know from her election as Attorney General and U.S. Senator in the largest Latino state that she has the ability to connect and win over Latino voters,” Barreto said.

“For those who don’t remember, she defeated three Latino candidates in the Democratic primary for attorney general and defeated a Latino Democrat in her election to the US Senate. Harris has an excellent record of campaigning and winning the Latino vote, and these favorability numbers give me a lot of optimism.”

This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story